Lewis Hamilton 'difficult conversation' needed with Ferrari: 'He isn't trusting that team'

Bernie Collins has called for a "difficult conversation" between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, with the former Aston Martin strategist arguing that the seven-time world champion no longer trusts the team's pit wall after a string of strategic disputes.

Collins' comments follow Hamilton's costly decision to override Ferrari's call to pit under the Virtual Safety Car during the Singapore Grand Prix, a moment that dropped him from podium contention to sixth place. 

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has since confirmed the call did go out over the radio, with Hamilton either missing the pit entry or choosing to ignore it.

Discussing the fallout on the Sky F1 Podcast, Collins pointed to a near-identical pattern the week before in Malaysia.

"Fred (Vasseur) obviously came out afterwards and said, yes, they did call him. Lewis missed the entry or ignored the call, whichever way you want to think about it. But someone of Lewis's stature doesn't forget to do a pit stop. So let's say it's a decision not to take the pit entry, or the call didn't come in time, or whatever. But that was crucial, I think, to the race at that point," she said.

"Now, if we go back a week to Malaysia, we had the same sort of lack of trust, for want of another word. They started on a dry tyre, then the call came to switch to an intermediate tyre. Lewis said, 'That's the wrong thing; we need to stick this out now.' 

"He had a discussion with the pit wall, an argumentative discussion, stayed on the tyre that he was on, and ultimately that ended up very similar to Leclerc towards the end of the race.

"However, I do think that shows more globally that Lewis isn't trusting that Ferrari team."

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari 'trust' talks urged

Both incidents left Ferrari's strategy looking compromised at crucial moments, with Charles Leclerc taking the alternative route on both occasions. 

In Singapore, the Monegasque pitted as instructed under the VSC and came home second behind Max Verstappen, while Hamilton's gamble left him well adrift in sixth, 53.188 seconds behind the race winner. 

Hamilton has since taken public ownership of the Singapore error, insisting over team radio and on social media that the call was his mistake rather than a communication failure within the team.

Collins believes the pattern points to something deeper than a single bad decision, warning that split-second strategy calls leave no room for Hamilton to rebuild trust on the fly.

"He's questioning their decisions, and in this sort of quick decision-making moment under a VSC, there's not the time to have all the back and forth about what he thinks or why he thinks it or doesn't think it," added Collins.

"But it's very difficult from a pit wall and Lewis's side to then think, 'Okay, last week I questioned them; I think I was correct. This week I'm going to question them; maybe I'm correct or incorrect.' And then there was an opportunity later on, I think even after they missed the VSC, to do a full pit stop and still be able to beat Piastri, and they didn't take that either. 

"There was the decision then to string it out and hope for another safety car. So I think there were lots of decisions that should have been done differently, and I think they should be having a very difficult conversation between Lewis and his engineers, or the strategy team, or Fred, whoever needs to be involved. 

"Say, 'Where is the trust when we make these decisions? What is the protocol for how that decision is taken, and why?'"